New Paltz school board cuts three teaching jobs, adds two

NEW PALTZ >> The Board of Education has voted to abolish three elementary school teaching positions and hire two new special education teachers.

The moves were authorized during a board meeting Wednesday. The vote for the elementary cuts was 6-1, with Steve Greenfield dissenting. The vote for the two new hires was 6-0.

“This [the need fore the cuts] is a problem that our school district did not bring upon itself,” Greenfield said. “It was brought upon us by state mandates beyond our control that’s affecting classroom size. ... We were hoping to reduce class size in several grades throughout the district this year, and now we can’t.”

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Greenfield said he hopes district residents will recognize that state mandates have kept the school district and board from following through on promises they made earlier this year.

“We presented budget information in the spring that everyone was supportive of that showed class size going down,” he said. “That’s not going to happen. ... I to make sure that people know it is not the fault of this district that it’s happening.”

Greenfield said there needs to be a local movement to show state lawmakers the level of unhappiness among school district residents.

“My objection is to why it’s happening, which is something that needs to be addressed at legislative bodies superior to this one, up in Albany,” he said. “We’re going to need concerted action, not only from us as boards ... but from parents, taxpayers, everybody to understand what creates these situations.”

Greenfield said changes in how districts work with special education students is part of a “generalized problem” that allows state lawmakers to add costs without providing more aid.

“The way special ed is funded is just one of the many mandates,” he said. “There are things that are requirements that we have to fulfill. We have no choice but to take money from other places to fulfill because the people who created those mandates aren’t funding them.”

Greenfield said the district also is constrained by the state limit on how much property taxes can rise each year.

“The tax cap is definitely one of (the problems), but to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to solve this problem by tinkering with the tax cap,” he said. “Doing that means we’re solving this financial problem by going to our local people for more money. They’re not the people who mandate that these thing happen; they shouldn’t be the people funding it.”